OK so they aren’t really burning books but they are pulling all Wiley & Sons books off the shelf because of the latest book from the company named “iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business,” which is an unauthorized biography of Steve Jobs. Excerpt from WSJ:
Apple, of Cupertino, Calif., removed the books last week from all 104 of its stores after failing in a monthlong attempt to persuade John Wiley & Sons not to release "iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business," which is to go on sale within the next six weeks, the publisher said.
The book-spurning is only the latest attempt by Apple executives to crack down on writers who publish or distribute unauthorized or secret information about the computer maker.
It's a strategy that experts in brand management say is likely to backfire, only adding to the notoriety of Apple's critics and encouraging sales in countless other bookstores.
"Pulling books off the shelf is a little draconian," said Rob Frankel, a brand consultant. "It reeks of repression."
The book's author, Jeffrey Young, says Mr. Jobs has nothing to fear from "iCon." It's a chronicle of Mr. Jobs's rise as an innovator and entrepreneur and includes details about his personal life such as his divorce and fight with cancer, he said.
"I thought the book was pretty positive and laudatory," Mr. Young said. "It covers his personal life and there is something about his illness. I wouldn't call any of it outrageous. I'm totally bewildered."
Mr. Young said Wiley & Sons sent a manuscript to Apple two weeks ago and the company responded by demanding that the publisher halt the release. Wiley & Sons decided instead to stand behind its author. Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said company executives were declining to comment.
April 2005 Archives
NPR has a nice story on public WiFi. What are the pros and cons to having governments become service providers? On the one hand I understand why service providers would be upset but then again, we need superior Internet access in this country to compete as a nation. Take a listen and make your own conclusion.
Of course it should be obvious to anyone that VoIP is wreaking havoc on service providers. This technology had two false starts but is so entrenched now that service providers are rethinking how they will exist in the future. There is safety in numbers it seems and this is why we are seeing carriers herd together in smaller groups that eventually merge together.
But in the end consumers don’t benefit when service providers get too strong. This is exactly what Qwest is telling the FCC as they petition the government body to block the proposed merger of SBC and AT&T.
SBC has many reasons to initiate this acquisition not the least of which is reducing a powerful lobbying opponent from the industry. AT&T is one of the companies that fought tirelessly against the RBOC monopoly in the interest of consumers. AT&T did this because it was smart business for the NJ based telephone giant and in this case their interests were the same as Joe six-pack.
Here is part of the Qwest release on the matter:
"To protect the public, it is essential that if the merger application is not denied outright, then the FCC must condition its approval, at a minimum, on significant divestitures of facilities and other related overlapping operations in SBC's 13-state operating territory. In addition, because the proposed merged company will benefit from the elimination of AT&T as a competitor -- and benefit from the elimination of other competitors' access to AT&T's wholesale services and access facilities -- other significant conditions must be imposed in order to attempt to level the playing field."
On the heels of the Qwest release, an opposing announcement arrived from the Communications Workers of America, available at:
SBC-AT&T Merger Merits Quick Approval, CWA Tells FCC
According to CWA, SBC-AT&T merger will (with my comments in red):
Create a "premier U.S. communications company," with the ability to "expand the delivery of advanced technologies, services and features to all classes of customers."
"Create a company with the resources and end-to-end network essential in the deployment of advanced next-generation Internet-Protocol enabled networks and services."
They don’t need to merge to do this.
Assure that "national security will be safeguarded, by ensuring that AT&T, on which the government heavily depends for national security and other needs, will be a strong American company."
Interesting perspective but the government can just block foreign purchasers of AT&T and SBC could just as easily be acquired by a foreign corporation, right?
"Enhance, not reduce, competition by combining the different strengths of the two merger partners -- AT&T's global network and research innovation and SBC's financial strength and local exchange, broadband and wireless capabilities."
I am at a loss to understand how a merger enhances competition. AT&T’s CallVantage was a strong competitor to SBC’s phone service and the service had the added benefit of having the AT&T name behind it. The service is now apparently shelved – well not really shelved but I have yet to hear CallVantage being mentioned prominently since the merger was announced.
"Provide employees at both companies with the opportunity to share in the growth of the merged entity rather than the job loss that has been the fate of all too many AT&T employees in recent years."
I know a number of people who have their resumes ready at AT&T now that this merger was announced. Again, isnt it obvious that mergers create job loss and reduce competition?
I was listening to the radio this morning and a local
Fellow blogger and TMC team member Greg Galitzine broke the news on Cisco’s acquisition of Sipura. The founders of Sipura also founded Komodo Technology who made the infamous Komodofone which became the Cisco ATA 186. Cisco seems to love what these guys produce and Sipura is a good acquisition for Cisco.
I am too close to the technology to be objective perhaps but is VoIP that confusing? The term I mean. Is it sooo terrible. According to a the Global Language Monitor – the self-appointed Internet acronym Military Police, VoIP is on the Top 10 list and is in fact #2. IMO VoIP passes the cocktail party test as most people know what VoIP does and if you tell them Vonage they know what you mean. Now I am not talking about the bingo socials some of my loyal readers may frequent but the more happening events where people don’t live in retirement communities, drink light beer and tequila (you know who you are).
Again, I am biased but I think VoIP is generally understood and is certainly understood better than a term like computer worm. Here is the list. You can decide for yourself:
The Most Confusing Yet Frequently Cited High Tech Words with Commentary follow:
1. HTTP HyperText Transfer Protocol is used for HTML (HyperText Markup Language) files. Not to be confused with text on too much Starbucks. More than 1 billion references to HTTP on the web alone.
2. Voice Over IP VoIP, (pronounced voip rhyming with
3. Megapixel A really big pixel. No, one million pixels (thats a lotta pixels) OK, whats a pixel? Computer-ese for picture element.
4. Plasma As in Plasma TV. Are we talking Red Cross Drives here? Rather, a flat, lightweight surface covered with millions of tiny glass bubbles with a digitally controlled electric current flowing through it that causes the plasma inside the tiny bubbles to glow.
5. Robust No one quite knows what this means, but its good for your product to demonstrate robustness.
6. WORM A virus, right? No, a Write Once, Read Many file system used for optical disk technology.
7. Emoticon A smiley with an emotional component (from emotional icon). Now, whats a smiley?
8. Best of breed Not to be confused with the Westminster Dog Show. A personalized solution made of components from various manufacturers; a sort of high tech mix-and-match.
9. Viral marketing Marketing that Freezes your computer? Actually, a high tech marketing fad that theoretically results in a geometric progression of ones marketing message. Sometimes stealth. Always irritating.
10. Data migration Nothing to do with pre-historic mastodons or, even, global warming. Its where the data in your present software programs can move to newer (or older) versions of the programs or, better yet, into competitive solutions without causing much of a fuss. A highly unlikely result
Rich, you may tell me... This entry is about trains and has nothing to do with technology. Perhaps, but there seems to be a fair amount of technical problems with Acela and this NYTIMES article is a depressing reminder that the world's only superpower has a superloser rail transport system. I love Acela, but it is slow and now not even in full operation. IMO we need high speed rail throughout the
I'll tell you; this saga has more twists and turns than a small intestine. After yesterday's podcast when we were pretty sure that MCI would tell Qwest to jump in a lake, it turns out MCI really does take Qwest seriously. They have decided to accept the 9.75 billion dollar takeover bid according to the AP.
Verizon now has five days to respond and can boost its offer again or walk away with a nice financial penalty.
MCI directors have repeatedly expressed concern about Qwest's $17 billion debt load and the long-term value of the Qwest shares MCI investors would receive as partial payment. The MCI board also has questioned whether Qwest can meet its forecast of nearly $3 billion a year in cost savings from the proposed merger.
Qwest's $30-per-share offer consists of $14 in Qwest stock and $16 in cash - an increase of $2.50 in cash compared with its prior offer.
The Verizon deal valued MCI at $23.10 per share, though two weeks ago it agreed to pay nearly $26 a share for a 13.4 percent stake in MCI from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu. That gambit fueled speculation that Verizon would offer at least that much for the rest of MCI's stock.
I am just hoping this story will go away. It was fun to cover for a while but the molasses-in-July-like back and forth movement is like watching a tennis match in slow motion. I hope Qwest wins this war as I have the consumer's best interests in mind and being the weaker of the two companies, a Qwest merger would mean the market won't be dominated by a single giant in Verizon.
If the story takes one more intestinal twist and Verizon becomes the winner, it will be the consumers who will feel the droppings of this merger on their heads. My suggestion? Wear a hat.
So here is the MP3 of our latest Podcast. For some reason I didn't like it when we recorded it but I didn't get the time to rerecord. I finally listened to it and it is pretty good... I must say, I am happy with how it turned out. I think the radio team of editors I have backing me, Bob Liu and Al Bredenberg have some great chemistry with me "on-air". Somehow I just noticed that Bob's voice is a bit distorted but overall the sound quality is much better than the first one we did, two weeks ago. If you want to sign up to get these automatically, here is the link you seek: http://www.tmcnet.com/podcast/.
I just noticed today the highest Alexa ranking TMCnet has ever had for a single day, 2,730. This means we were ranked in the top 2,730 sites in the world. For a communications and technology news site, this is pretty high and we are proud of the recognition by Alexa and thanks to all of our loyal readers that allow our rankings to increase so steadily.
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Above is the graph of TMC growth in rankings over two years.
Traffic Rank for tmcnet.com (what's this)
| Today | 1 wk. Avg. | 3 mos. Avg. | 3 mos. Change |
| 2,730 | 4,510 | 5,647 |  4,522 |
Here is our daily record at 2730. Again, this is out of all sites in the world.
Where do people go on tmcnet.com? (what's this)
- tmcnet.com~ 77%
- blog.tmcnet.com~ 12%
- blog.tmcnet.com~ 6%
- voip-forum.tmcnet.com~ 4%
- whitepapers.tmcnet.com~ 1%
Reach for tmcnet.com : (what's this)
Reach per million users:
| Today | 1 wk. Avg. | 3 mos. Avg. | 3 mos. Change |
| 280 | 210 | 173 | 64% |
Page Views for tmcnet.com: (what's this)
Page Views per user:
| Today | 1 wk. Avg. | 3 mos. Avg. | 3 mos. Change |
| 6.3 | 4.2 | 4.0 | 43% |
Join me for a webinar that details how you can deploy voice self-service solutions your customers will love. What excites me about this webinar sponsored by Gold Systems is that AAA the famous motor-club company will be presenting a success story. I can't imagine a more difficult implementation than AAA since most callers are on cell phones, making for a demanding speech recognition environment. See the details below and I hope to see (well electronically anyway) you there on Wednesday.
Join us to learn how AAA (Automobile Association of America), the world's largest automobile club with over 44 million members, has used voice automation solutions to delight its members.
Benchmarks for Creating Successful Speech Automation Solutions
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
10:00 -11:00 am (Pacific Time) 
Call Center Best Practices - "6 Tips to Deploying Voice Self-Service Solutions that Customers Love." 
Why one AAA club (AAA -Minnesota/Iowa), has chosen to implement a series of voice automation solutions. You'll hear their lessons learned and results of these applications on their bottom line. How to enhance your brand with an outstanding caller experience. Potential pitfalls many companies make when moving to voice automation solutions from traditional touch-tone applications. Tips for ensuring a seamless handoff between your voice automation application and your live agents. 6 benchmark best practices for creating voice automation solutions that your customers, partners and employees love to use. 
Sponsored By: 
The alarm technician was over today and I was speaking t him about our phone service and how one of our phone lines goes over the Internet so perhaps we need to switch the alarm's phone input to be on our other non-Internet line. I was tying not to use technical terms as I didn't expect the technician to be an expert is packetized telephony. He also told me it was his sixtieth birthday soon so I didn't expect him to tell me about his Sony PSP usage.
All of a sudden he started to tell me that I am using a technology called voice over IP and most people don't realize that when the power goes down that the electronics aren't powered and the line dies and no phone calls can be placed at all. I smiled. I was speechless. I was elated.
We have made it as an industry. Sure, this single technician does not a population make but still, he knew what he was taking about and he knew what to advise me of and he knew how to handle my situation. This bodes well for our industry. I am very happy today. I think today is the day where I truly believe that writing about VoIP since the mid-nineties and educating the world has paid off.
We are now mainstream. The technology is being understood by those that need to understand it. Sure we have along way to go but I see the first steps have been taken and it just gets more fun from here.
My cousin sent me the Jib Jab Matzah video. Pretty funny. Not as funny as the political videos of the past but creative nonetheless. I would have taken a tip from Adam Sandler and had more famous Jewish celebrities. That would have made it funnier. I think I saw Monica Lewinski in the video but am not sure. To all you other fellow Jews out there, have a Happy Passover. To the rest of you, enjoy your bread, pasta, cake, etc.
Update: Be sure to check out the newly released VoIP For SMB site that details the latest news and features in the world of small business voice over IP.
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I am seeing lots of new devices coming onto the market. Converged firewall, SIP, WiFi, VoIP devices that will let about 50-60 people use VoIP in their offices. The holy grail of VoIP for many of these companies is the SMB space which will be huge adopters of VoIP in the coming months. The channel for such products is resellers and service providers.
These device companies have priced their products in the $500-$1,000 range depending on features and functions. Worldwide there are hundreds of millions of small offices so the market for such products is huge. I am working with a number of these companies to help them get their products out into the hands of resellers and service providers worldwide.
It is an exciting time for me as there are a number of companies in the market that have made it through the telecom nuclear winter and these companies are more optimistic than ever. They are spending more than ever on R&D. The SMB space is virtually untapped and presents a tremendous opportunity for resellers and ITSPs worldwide.
I look forward to seeing VoIP adoption in this segment grow.
Having just done a whirlwind tour of
I didn’t think much of it until I returned and read Tom Keating’s blog about the Undetectable Speed Detector which basically uses a camera and a computer to determine speed. No laser and no radar means nothing to detect which means speeders are screwed. There is no defense against such a device except perhaps cloaking technology which we all know Earthlings are banned from using (Sorry about the totally geeky Star Trek reference).
Seriously though, the concept of this technology in mass production is very scary. Imagine the highway cameras that are literally everywhere and the cameras at many intersections can now have this same ability. Since your car is being photographed already it is an easy job to just send you a ticket. No cops needed. No paperwork. There is even technology that will read license plates so if the camera surmises you are speeding it discovers your plate number, queries the Motor Vehicles database and sends you a ticket. Wait till the Motor Vehicle departments start asking for our e-mail addresses. We can have our ticket sent to our Blackberries within a few seconds of us being caught speeding. Isn't technology great ;-(
